JEDDAH, 31 July 2005 — Marai Company achieved the highest profits in its history during the first half of 2005, announced the chairman, Prince Sultan Ibn Mohammed Ibn Saud Al-Kabir, on the eve of the first general assembly of the partners after the IPO — the transfer assembly — which was held yesterday in Riyadh. Net profits for the mid-year 2005 was SR178.3 million, an increase of 2 percent for the same period last year.
Prince Sultan emphasized that the company is keen on continuing to achieve higher growth and expansion in its productivity and marketing. “Achieving this high net profit was a result of increase in sales and production efficiency as well as increase in our cattle’s production rate which is considered among the highest in the world,” he said.
The company saw an increase in its sales during the first half of 2005 reaching SR994.8 million, an increase of 9.7 percent for the same period last year. Total profits increased by 8.8 percent reaching SR395 million. The increase in total profits was less than the increase in sales due to the increase in production costs as a result of higher prices of the raw material and the decrease in the price of US dollar.
It was also due to the expansion plans of the company that includes establishing a new model factory, expanding the farms and production units, and developing distribution and sales capacity thus increasing the company’s assets to SR1221 million, an increase of 11.3 percent.
“The company received loans to implement the expansion project, which is about to be completed, some from the government and the other is commercial loans from a number of banks in accordance with Shariah laws,” said Prince Sultan. As for the date for trading Marai stocks, the prince said that the Capital Market Authority is the administration that specifies the date for the start in trading the stocks. “That is done in coordination with Tadawul (Saudi stock exchange market) after verifying the uploading of the information on the company’s IPO results in the Tadawul’s system. We expect that the Marai’s stock will begin trading in the market during the month of August,” he said. Sources said that might be as soon as next week.
The first general assembly meeting (the transfer assembly) was held yesterday after the completion of the IPO. The meeting was presided over by Prince Sultan and attended by the board of directors and the company’s administration team.